That’s how parent Nelly Lima described the rape charges against a Brockton Boys & Girls Club counselor on Wednesday. As Lima dropped off her 16-year-old daughter at the facility, she expressed her concern for her daughter’s safety in the wake of the charges against 22-year-old Chris Policard.

Policard, a staff member at the time, is accused of sexually assaulting and raping an underage teen inside the club.

“It is crazy, very crazy, especially when you think your kid is safe, while you’re at work and you’re thinking they’re out of the street, (this place is) something that’s educational,” Lima, 33, said outside the center at 233 Warren Ave. “To hear something like this, it’s very disturbing.”

The Brockton mother learned about the charges against Policard on Wednesday morning through media reports. She questioned why club officials had not informed parents about the reported sexual assaults and Policard’s subsequent firing last month. Policard was arraigned on rape and other charges in Brockton Superior Court on Tuesday.

“Especially where it happened a year ago, why do we hear about it now?” Lima said.

Club officials wanted to wait until the investigation was complete and the case back in the court system, said Bill Conlon, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club and a former city police chief.

The club planned to send a letter to parents within the next day or two, Conlon said.

“We want to reassure the parents that their kids are safe here and that our foremost concern is their safety and well-being and always has been,” Conlon said Wednesday. “I’m very confident that the kids are safe here. We had one person that was a problem, and that person has been removed.”

Officials believe this is an isolated incident involving just one victim, Conlon said.

Policard, a Brockton native and Roxbury resident, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to two counts of aggravated rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. The charges relate to alleged incidents at the club in February and September 2013.

Court documents indicate the victim told police that Policard began a relationship with her and that Policard groped her, molested her and had her perform oral sex twice, among other graphic sexual acts, in a back stairwell of the club, while the club was open.

Policard denied having any sexual contact with the alleged victim when detectives interviewed him on Dec. 2, court documents show. He was held on $75,000 bail with surety or $7,500 cash bail after his arraignment Tuesday. His next court date is July 14.

Page 2 of 3 - If released, Policard is ordered to stay away from the victim, from children under 16 and from the Boys & Girls Club.

Brockton attorney Jason Benzaken, who is representing Policard, did not return calls for comment.

Some members of the Brockton Boys & Girls Club board of directors, including Janice Beyer and Gerard Nadeau, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Board member Barry Koretz said he could not comment because he was not familiar with the case.

Board member David Reservitz also declined comment, saying he needed the board’s permission to comment.

Policard was fired from his part-time position of youth counselor, a job he held for about three years, after he was indicted by a Plymouth County grand jury on May 30, Conlon said. He was initially suspended without pay after club officials learned about the allegations last fall, he said.

City officials are calling for greater vigilance in youth programs to keep children safe after learning about the Boys & Girls Club case.

“It goes to show that when you work with children or when you a run an organization that serves children, you always have to be vigilant,” said Ward 2 School Committee member Andrew Robinson, in whose ward the club is located. “There’s some responsibility to constant vigilance.”

Founded in 1988, the nonprofit Boys & Girls Club of Brockton provides after-school programs to local children ages 8 to 18. The club has about 1,000 members and about 200 children attend daily.

Ward 2 City Councilor Tom Monahan agreed more supervision is needed at the inner-city Brockton facility.

“It’s a shame. I don’t know how much supervision there is or what the rules of supervision are,” Monahan said. “I never heard of a problem there before. They may have to rethink how they supervise children.”

Conlon said the agency has since met with staffers and installed cameras in the stairwell where the incidents reportedly occurred.

“Everybody has been asked to be on high alert at all times for anything that seems suspicious and to avoid one-on-one isolated contact, that it can’t be,” Conlon said.

A spokesman for Mayor Bill Carpenter said Carpenter was waiting to be briefed on the case by police and that the mayor was not prepared to comment on Wednesday.

A co-founder of the Boys & Girls Club, former Brockton Mayor John T. Yunits shared his concerns for the alleged victim. He hopes this negative situation can be turned into a positive by bringing awareness to the problem of sexual assaults.

“The sexual assaults, they’re out of control and, hopefully, this will become an important issue that we have to talk about,” Yunits said.

Page 3 of 3 - Yunits said the case “shouldn’t taint the overall mission of the club.”

“It serves such a great need for the community,” said Councilor-at-large Moises Rodrigues, who visited the club for a basketball tournament on Mother’s Day.

“All we can do is be supportive and also see what we can do to get the club to mend whatever damages were created by this incident ... to help it move forward,” Rodrigues said.